Manchester City Chief Calls for Premier League B-Teams to Be Introduced to the EFL

Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano has called for a restructure of the English Football League, labelling the current format "not sustainable enough."

Several EFL clubs have been financially hampered by the Coronavirus pandemic, with fans still not allowed back into stadiums.

Soriano claims that the EFL has needed reorganisation for a while in order to make the system more viable.

Speaking to Leaders Week (via Sky), the Spaniard said: "One of the challenges is the EFL [is] a business that is not sustainable enough.

"They were discussing ways to improve it, they were discussing salary caps. Now they were sort of nudged, almost pushed, to solve the existing problems because of the crisis. It's a good opportunity for the different elements of the football business to get together and solve these problems."

Soriano has also stated that a change could be beneficial to the development of young talent at top flight clubs.

"There are other problems; the challenges of developing players in England where B teams are not allowed, we have a development gap of boys that are 17 or 18, they don't find the right place to develop and, for example, they are taken from us by the German teams, who try to sell them back to us for a price which is 10 times what they paid."

EFL clubs opted not to introduce B-teams into its leagues in 2016, but Under-21 sides have since been introduced into the EFL Trophy.

B-teams are used in many of the major footballing leagues in Europe - most notably in Spain. Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi made a combined total of 137 appearances for Barcelona B.

However, Soriano's proposal has not been well received by the public. #BTeamBoycott was eighth trending in the UK, while MP Jonathan Reynolds claimed that B-teams would ruin the "depth and competitiveness" of the EFL.